Warsaw Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Warsaw, IN – a church of 400 located in northern Indiana is seeking a unique individual with the rare combination of leadership, pastoral and organizational skills to be a member of our pastoral staff. As a member of the pastoral leadership, the Assistant Pastor will assist in the Mission of WEPC and demonstrate Our Core Values of GRACE in all aspects of their ministry within the church and community. Please visit www.warsawpresby.org to review our Mission Statement and Core Values and to learn more about our ministries, our staff and our focus.

The Assistant Pastor is responsible for creating, leading and shepherding programs in key areas of the church. The ideal candidate must be charismatic, loyal, honest, straightforward and demonstrate the ability to delegate, sense talent, train and follow up. A Master of Divinity degree is required for this position.

There is a HIGH emphasis on: Youth – This individual will plan and implement curriculum and programs which result in graduates who live for Christ. Small Groups – The Assistant Pastor will enhance and grow this ministry.

Additional responsibilities for this position include: Preaching – the Assistant Pastor will have demonstrated skill in preaching the Word of God. Assimilation and Outreach – the Assistant pastor will support the activities and actions to provide connections to the family of believers through the church. Pastoral Care – our Assistant Pastor will share in caring for the flock.

Greater Warsaw is an area of approximately 30,000 people and known as the “orthopedic capital of the world.” The city is in Kosciusko County (population 75,000) which offers many activities and more than 100 lakes. Families enjoy small town living with easy commutes to “big city amenities.” The church facility is in downtown Warsaw and houses the Presby Preschool with an annual enrollment of approximately 300 students. A copy of their Church Information Form is available in the online version of the EPC Opportunity List at www.epc.org (click on the “Opportunity List” in the Quick Links section).

Interested candidates should submit a completed Personal Information Form to Larry Peppel, Chair of the Assistant Pastor Search Team, at lpeppel@embarqmail.com. Questions can be directed to Larry at 574-268-2228.

Eastford Baptist Church is over 200 years old. It is an evangelical fundamental church with about 190 attenders. It is an active church with very good children and youth programs. Its annual budget is about $340,000 of which over 25% goes to missionary support. The church has a sanctuary that holds approximately 300 and a separate Family Activity Center with classrooms and a gym. It also has a parsonage.

Eastford is a small rural town in NE Connecticut It is a town of about 1800 people. It is mostly farm land and forest. It has a K-8 elementary school, a bank, a lumberyard, a café, a post office, and a car dealer. The nearest town with a large supermarket is about 15 miles.

If my memory serves correctly, I had the privilege of sleeping in before going to College Chapel in McClain the morning of 9/11/01. I may have had class before actually, I don’t have any idea. When a world-changing event like that happens, all the details kind of fade to black.

This past week was the 11th anniversary of that horrific day and it was interesting to see all my friends and acquaintances post on Facebook about where they were and how they reacted. I remember initially reacting with disbelief, when one of my friends told me what had happened before chapel started. Later came tears, deep sadness, and helplessness as I watched TV coverage from my apartment in Lamp Post Dorm.

Major events like 9/11 make details fade to black by putting everything into perspective. What is important? What am I living for? What am I investing my time, energy, and money in?

While it should be a perspective we habitually embrace, often it takes epic events to jolt us out of our comfortable routines and easy lives so we can consider what’s important in the grand scheme of things.

Paul certainly had this perspective, sitting in a Roman jail cell, facing exoneration or execution. Writing to the Philippians he penned the profound but simple words – “To live is Christ, and to die is gain”. When we keep that perspective, we will live with more courage and less distractions, less fear and more power.

When confronted with the realities of the frail nature of life and the certainty of death, is that how we will respond?

I know work in admissions with three different programs. These three different programs have different applications and admissions requirements needed to get in. They all require one thing that is the same though – a personal reference.

Though it’s one of many pieces reqiured, this reference is needed to help us learn more about the individual and how they fit with who we are as an institution. Other pieces vary – transcripts, additional references, test scores, background checks – but they are all ingredients which help inform our evaluation regarding admitting the individual as a student.

I’m glad God has simplified our admissions process into His Kingdom program, into His eternal life, into His Bride. We just need one reference – one from His Son.

“For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righeousness of God.” – 2 Cor. 5:21 ESV

Christ is our substitute, we are clothed in His righeousness and when the Father sees His name on our reference form, our admission is set in stone. What a glorious gospel! What a sweet relief – that it doesn’t depend on our goodness or perfection. It’s all about Christ and what He’s done!

This week’s example is stolen from Dan Green, professor at Moody Bible Institute. It was so good I had to steal it, even though I can’t relate to it at all, having never hunted in my life.

Some take the concept of waiting and depending on the Lord and verses like “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10) to mean that it is important in the Christian life to sit back and be passive. “Let Go and Let God” they say, hoping God will send them a direct answer and audibly tell them what to do when they face a tough choice.

While not heretical, there is some bad theology in that line of thinking. Waiting, in the biblical and even the physical sense is not passive. Waiting takes effort, trust and dependance in the Lord, and restraining oneself from trying to manipulate things.

Waiting on the Lord, as Dr. Green explained, is a lot like hunting. There is a lot of careful and detailed preparation that goes into hunting. Even the approach to the deer stand must be done properly. And waiting for the deer to come across your sights takes great alertness and watchfulness. And when one is ready for the right moment, when it comes, success will be achieved. But there are a lot of tense, quiet,focused, and anxious moments leading up to it.

Hunting deer is just like waiting on the Lord. Neither are passive, both call for careful preparation and optimal alertness.

I find myself thinking about real-life situations and random events I hear about on the news and trying to relate them to Scripture. Mostly it is because I find myself teaching either mid-week Bible Study or Sunday School. But a good illustration is gold when it comes to making a spiritual truth tangible.

So I’m making an executive decision to take this blog in a more focused direction. I will be sharing the connections I come up with and how they relate to a particular passage or Biblical truth.

The first one comes from a meeting I had at church last Friday. Our sanctuary has just been remodeled and we brought in a professional sound technician to walk us through all of the nuances of sound, lighting, etc. I oversee the PowerPoint team and I enjoyed getting a brief overview of all the ways our sound system can be improved and will improve with the refurbishing that has been done.

The sound tech said something important when it comes to the big-picture. And what he said reminded me of something I’ve heard many times about offensive lineman in football. He said that we will do our job well, when no one notices us. The minute a mic is too hot, or the mix of the band is off, or there is an error in the PowerPoint – people will be distracted from worshiping and have their focus temporarily shifted to us. When you are watching a football game, you don’t notice the offensive linemen until they give up a sack, get a false start, or are flagged for holding. The best offensive lineman are the ones you never notice.

And offensive linesman as well as tech guys are crucial members of their teams. A football team can have the best quarterback in the world, but if he doesn’t have time to throw because his lineman are screwing up, then their offense will not succeed. A church can employ the best singers and worship band in the world, but if their sound and tech people fail, the worship experience will not be all that it could be.

From ushers, to groundskeepers and custodians, to nursery workers, there are dozens of positions within a community of believers that may not get all the human glory and praise, but are crucial to a church’s effectiveness.

22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

Last night was Church League Softball night. I’ve been playing for 7-8 years and it’s always a lot of fun. Last night saw a mild drizzle make conditions a little wet but it wasn’t too bad. My third at-bat, I hit a shot to deep right-center field. As I was approaching 1st base while watching the ball and the outfielder, I could tell it was going over his head and I turned to hit first base and sprint for second. When my foot hit the bag, it slipped and I immediately lost my balance and slid on the infield dirt. Knowing I’d scraped up my leg pretty good, I immediately bounced up and started to go, when the guys around me told me it had left the yard.

I have hit home runs before, but not many, so I was a little suprised. But my excitement and pride were tempered by my total wipeout on the basepaths. It was a weird mix of feelings – pride and embarrassment.

It reminded me of several spiritual principles:

Often, we need to be the most careful during those times we are experiencing success, otherwise we’ll likely trip ourselves up.

Pride is such a dangerous thing because it deceives us into believing we are great and deserving of great things.

Successful times of blessing are the perfect times to give our selves a reality check.

Competitiveness (in ministry or sports) can sap the joy out of what is designed to be recreation and relaxation.

The world doesn’t revolve around us. I asked a couple of my teammates if they saw my embarrassing wipeout and they had not. So my even my sense of embarrassment was probably overblown if only a few saw me bite it.

I could be reading way to much into that one minute episode from Tuesday night, but as a current teacher and future pastor, I tend to try to learn lessons from everyday events and use them for illustrations. Maybe that’s another lesson – do you look for spiritual principles behind the events of your week?

I’ve been involved in part-time or full-time ministry for 10 years this summer.

I love it. There is nothing more rewarding or satisfying. And selfishly, there is nothing like preparing to teach God’s Word to boost your own spiritual growth.

But ministry often can be tough, frustrating, and thankless because it involves working with people and people are fallen creatures, even the redeemed ones.

1 Thessalonians 5:12-24 provides helpful insight for those times when ministry is thankless. The Apostle Paul urges the people to make life easier on their leaders by conducting themselves in a godly way (vs.12-15). But if we flip those commands around, we will realize that ministry could be just as thankless 2000 years ago as it can be today. People can be disrespectful, divisive, lazy, weak, hard to be patient with, and out for revenge.

But we in ministry can prepare for and survive those times by embracing the commands that follow in vs.16-24.

Without getting into too much detail, I think they can be broken up into 3 categories. People in ministry can survive by cultivating 1) thankful hearts (vs.16-18) 2) teachable hearts (vs.19-21) and 3) pure hearts (vs. 22-24).

Having our hearts focused on Christ in those ways will prevent us from acting out in the flesh and responding in sinful ways when people become problematic and ministry becomes thankless.

Our small group ‘flock’ at church is going through the Fruit of the Spirit. We have been through love, joy, and peace last night. A good study, an interesting study as you look at all the different facets of these qualities and all the potential applications.

For the second or third straight week, I had to prod my wife away from socializing because we needed to leave. Needed may not accurately describe all three weeks, but it’s close enough. Poor me for having a wife who easily gets drawn into conversations with friends.

As I was trying to politely push her out the door, I was reminded for the second straight week that the fruit of patience is coming up. I don’t know that I’ve been impatient, just slightly bothered when one conversation ends and another begins. Well, at least I don’t have to teach on patience : ).